THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON BILATERAL TRADE IN VIETNAM

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or to what extent national culture influences bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and its trading partners. Using a panel dataset of 52 countries from 2001 till 2011 and six cultural dimensions of Hofstede, the regression analysis performed by gravity model shows that national culture and bilateral trade flows between Vietnam and trading partners are significantly correlated. This study's implications may help macro-policy makers devise better export promotion policies and boost the volume of bilateral trade between Vietnam and other countries around the world

In vitro bioactivities of Codonopsis javanica root extract from Kon Tum province, Vietnam

Dangshen Codonopsis javanica exhibits invaluable medicinal properties in herbal remedies; however, there has currently not been much specific analysis of the phytochemicals and bioactivities of this plant. The root ethanol extract of C. javanica contains substances such as saponins, phenolic acids, terpenoids, and alkaloids. It displays an antibacterial effect against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus with the IC50 values of 150, 100, 150, and 90 μg/mL, respectively. The antioxidant capacity of the root extract was also observed with an IC50 value of 46.8 ± 6.8 μg/mL. Furthermore, the extract exhibits activity on human cancer cell lines HepG2 (IC50 = 83.6 ± 2.7 μg/mL) and MCF-7 (IC50 = 95.3 ± 2.3 μg/mL). Hence, this study provides the basic data for further research on the bioactivities of natural compounds of Dangshen C. javanica for the first time

Deficient Mismatch Repair Proteins in Gastric Mixed Neuroendocrine Non-Neuroendocrine Neoplasm: A Rare Case Report

Mixed neuroendocrine non-neuroendocrine neoplasm (MiNEN) is a rare type of gastric carcinoma with controversial diagnosis and treatment. Recent data implies that deficiency mismatch repair proteins inducing microsatellite instability are considered one of the potential drivers of this disease. Hence, we report a stomach MiNEN with MMR protein loss. An admitted 60-year-old woman complained of epigastric pain. The pathological analysis of the gastro-endoscopic biopsy specimen revealed gastric adenocarcinoma. The radiological staging was cT3N1M0; therefore, she received D2 distal gastrectomy. Suspecting neuroendocrine component admix with adenocarcinoma part on the resected specimen microscopy, applying biomarkers including AE 1/3, synaptophysin, and chromogranin A to confirm the diagnosis of MiNEN. The neuroendocrine part was classified as neuroendocrine tumor grade 2 with Ki 67 at 16.5%. To further understand the molecular characterization of this disease, we evaluated mismatch protein expression by staining MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2 antibodies. Interestingly, both components lost MLH1 and PMS2 proteins. Her radical surgery followed oxaliplatin/capecitabine adjuvant chemotherapy. The patient is still well after eight cycles of chemotherapy. dMMR gastric MiNENs and dMMR gastric cancer share many clinical and genetic characteristics. Further studies are necessary to survey the role of dMMR in the prognosis and treatment of this entity

Secondary metabolites from Dipterocarpus obtusifolius Teijsm. Ex Miq

Six known compounds daphneresinol (1), (+)-neo-olivil (2), methyl gallate (3), bergenin (4), asiatic acid (5) and blumenol A (6) were obtained from the organic extract of the leaves of Dipterocarpus obtusifolius Teijsm. Ex Miq. by various chromatographic techniques. Structural elucidation of the metabolites was carried out by analysis of their spectroscopic data and by comparison with those reported in the literature. Compounds 1-4 and 6 were isolated from this plant for the first time

TextANIMAR: Text-based 3D Animal Fine-Grained Retrieval

3D object retrieval is an important yet challenging task, which has drawn more and more attention in recent years. While existing approaches have made strides in addressing this issue, they are often limited to restricted settings such as image and sketch queries, which are often unfriendly interactions for common users. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel SHREC challenge track focusing on text-based fine-grained retrieval of 3D animal models. Unlike previous SHREC challenge tracks, the proposed task is considerably more challenging, requiring participants to develop innovative approaches to tackle the problem of text-based retrieval. Despite the increased difficulty, we believe that this task has the potential to drive useful applications in practice and facilitate more intuitive interactions with 3D objects. Five groups participated in our competition, submitting a total of 114 runs. While the results obtained in our competition are satisfactory, we note that the challenges presented by this task are far from being fully solved. As such, we provide insights into potential areas for future research and improvements. We believe that we can help push the boundaries of 3D object retrieval and facilitate more user-friendly interactions via vision-language technologies.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0573

Updated upper limit of normal for serum alanine aminotransferase value in Vietnamese population

Background: Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a marker of hepatic damage and its range can be affected by viral hepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases. We aimed to study the factors associated with higher ALT level and update the upper limit of normal (ULN) in the Vietnamese population.Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 8383 adults, aged 18 years and older who visited the Medical Center at Ho Chi Minh City for a health check-up. Following the exclusion criteria, 6677 subjects were included in the analysis.Results: Age ≤40 years, male gender, body mass index >23 kg/m2, diastolic blood pressure >85 mm Hg, cholesterol >5.2 mmol/L, triglyceride >1.7 mmol/L, positivity, anti-hepatitis C virus positivity and fatty liver (p40 U/L). Without considering age and gender, healthy group is defined after exclusion of participants with one of the mentioned contributing factors. The median ALT level in the healthy group was 18 in men and 13 in women. The ULN at the 95th percentile of the healthy group was 40 U/L in men and 28 U/L in women.Conclusion: The ULN for ALT in healthy women was lower than in healthy men. Updated ULN for ALT level can promote the identification of unhealthy subjects. More studies that involve ethnicity and lifestyle factors are needed to confirm the new ULN in the Vietnamese population

Investigation of sorption mechanism of methylene blue, congo red and tannic acid from aqueous solutions onto magnetic composite sorbent obtained from alkaline pretreated spent coffee grounds

In this article, a novel magnetic composite material obtained from alkaline pretreated spent coffee grounds was used for investigating of the sorption mechanism of methylene blue, congo red and tannic acid from aqueous solutions. In order to clarify mechanisms were analyzed the adsorption kinetics models (external and internal diffusion; chemical kinetics (pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order); intraparticle diffusion) and the adsorption thermodynamics. The results showed that the sorption of all studied sorbates was controlled by a mixed diffusion model and a pseudo-second order and diffusion rate revealed three stage of the mass transfer. The adsorption process of methylene blue, congo red and tannic acid onto Fe3O4/PVA/APSCGs sorbent was spontaneous and endothermic. Based on the results, it was concluded that the mechanism for removal of the studied sorbates by adsorption onto Fe3O4/PVA/APSCGs sorbent may be assumed both physisorption and chemisorption

Revisiting the Key Optical and Electrical Characteristics in Reporting Photocatalysis of Semiconductors

Photocatalysis has been studied and considered as a green and effective approach in addressing environmental pollution. However, factors that affect photocatalytic performance have not been systematically studied. In this work, we have presented a comprehensive roadmap for characterizing, interpreting, and reporting semiconductors\u27 electrical and optical properties through routinely used techniques such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), electrochemical techniques (Mott-Schottky plots), photoluminescence (PL), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS ), and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) in the context of photocatalysis. Having deeply and precisely studied the band structure of three representative photocatalysts, we have presented and highlighted essential information and details, which are critical and beneficial for studies of (1) band alignments, (2) redox potentials, and (3) defects. Further works with a comprehensive understanding of band structure are desirable and hold great promise